“You can sit here,” I say in a more friendly tone. I realise I’ve been too harsh on her at first, but I really hang on to regular stuff. She smiles nervously again and I think to myself how cute that is. She’s still anxious. She probably wonders why I was so rude to her first and now offer her a seat. Maybe she thinks I’m a bully. Like the sort of person you can’t blame anything, the sort of person that is friendly towards you but you know he’s mocking you behind your back. I don’t want her to think I’m like that and I decide I’ll try my best.

***

Bette Porter

I feel how my entire body is tensed up. My dad and I just moved into town and I am going to a new school. I just got on the bus and I am sitting next to a very confusing blonde.

She’s confusing in more than one way. For a start, she first approached me to tell me to move in a tone that didn’t accept any protest. She gave me a very cold look, too. Seconds later, she tells me to sit next to her. I hope she isn’t one of the bullies who’s being friendly in your face and laughing at you at the same time, and you can’t blame them.

A little girl is sitting on her lap. I figure it’s her sister, she looks like a miniature version of the blonde. I don’t know what to say and I hope that we’re almost there.

My thoughts go to my dad. We moved in with his new girlfriend, Kirsten. She’s really nice, for a change. My dad tends to fall for women who want to cuddle me all the time and think they can be a real mother for me. I hate it when I have to call a completely strange woman ‘mom’. Kirsten isn’t like that and I’m glad. I hope this relationship lasts longer than usual.

My dad, Melvin, has had a lot of relationships with all kinds of women. Normally, he runs away whenever it gets too serious. That’s why we move a lot. Whenever I get used to a new situation, to a new girlfriend of his, it’s over and we have to start all over again. Whenever I have made friends, he comes home telling me we’re moving again. I have to leave everyone and adapt to the new situation. I have given up on making friends and try to keep distant. People think I’m anti-social or a nerd and I try not to mind. The truth is I do mind, but I don’t want to feel good somewhere because I know I’ll have to leave the place.